Friday, March 14, 2008

Seriously. It feels like I've dealt with more rude behavior on the road this week than the sum of all of winter combined. I'll get to that in a bit.

Over lunch, I took a trip to Raglan Road, a new authentic Irish restaurant drawing its inspiration from real Irish pubs. You know, the ones in Ireland. The interior was strikingly vivid, rich in detail, and pleasing to the eye. This was just across the street from Sprint Center where the Big 12 tournament games are going on, so the game was on TV and the place was packed.

I had the Fish 'n' Chips. Good Stuff! But not worth waiting 90 minutes for.

Okay, so on with the commute. I saw this happen right after I left work:

I actually came from the other side of this wreck, but rode up to make sure no one was injured. I was on the phone with 911 as I took this photo. The cop (visible left) was just pulling up. The Tiburon hit the curb and stopped, then got bumped by the semi, which swung the car about, destroying the rear suspension (which the two drivers are examining). No one hurt, but north and southbound traffic was stopped on Broadway at 3:40ish on a Friday afternoon. In short, this is A Bad Thing.

So, I'm on a bike, home free southbound on Broadway with virtually NO traffic going my way. It's about this time that the stuck northbounders start making impromptu u-turns in the middle of the road. This includes a taxi, who nicely let me pass before completing the turn. Then, there's this guy:He did a u-turn after the taxi, then got up on me at a stop light. Ahead in my lane, a UPS truck blocks the road. Common for this time of day, and if I were driving I'd NEVER use the outside lane on Broadway going southbound. I used the sidewalk. I beat the taxi through the intersection, and hopped off the curb after the UPS truck back out into the road. The taxi was behind me in the other lane, and mister "I have a new Volvo XC90" pulled in right behind me after the UPS truck. Then he tried nudging in between me and the taxi. Then he saw he wouldn't stand a chance of getting around me, and pulled in behind me as I turned right onto Southwest. All along Southwest, this guy was bullying cars around. At one point, he almost ran another car into oncoming traffic. At the next stop light, I took the above photo.

Passing Boulevard Brewery, I ran across Karen. A little ways past Antioch, we both nearly got right-hooked at the same time by a red Civic. Sorry, no pictures of that one.

3 comments:

Whose fault was the accident? I read it as the 4 wheeler screwed up first.

I have never understood the "I am in a hurry and everyone is in my way" mentality when in city traffic. You never win with traffic by being a flounder. The Volvo idiot though is found driving in enery town all over.

Well, the four wheeler caused it. It's hard telling what the officer wrote up. I didn't stick around. A lot of times the officer will fault the rear-ender (in this case the 'rig) with following too closely or some such but I'd doubt that happened in this case.

You know, the Missouri Bicycle Federation will send a nastygram to the home of the driver who gives you trouble if you get the license plate number. I'm not sure if it applies to those with Kansas plates, though. Might be a nice reminder for this friendly driver.

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